D 629 
.U6 fiS 
1917 
Copy 1 



The 
Work in Europe 

of the American Red Cross 

A Report to the American People 

by The Red Cross War 

Council 




American Red Cross 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



The 
Work in Europe 

of the American Red Cross 



Washington^ D. C, 

September 1, 1917. 

To THE American People : 

The policy of the War Council of the American 
Red Cross is to report frequently to the Ameri- 
can people concerning the use which is being 
made of all Eed Cross money. 

It is important that the American people should 
know in detail what the Red Cross is doing, why 
it is doing it, and how it is doing it. That is 
why the work so far undertaken in Europe is set 
forth herewith, both as to personnel and per- 
formance, in considerable detail. 

The War Council of the American Red Cross, 
since its appointment on May 10th, appropriated 
up to and including Aug. 31, the sum of |12,339,- 
681.87 for work in Europe, of which |10,692,601 is 
for use in France. 

The purposes of the over-seas appropriations 
may be roughly classified as follows : 

(1) To do everything possible to assist our 



Army and Navy in insuring the health and com- 
fort of American soldiers and sailors abroad, 
and 

(2) To relieve destitution and suffering 
among the armies and needy civilian populations 
of our allies. 

The War Fund. 

In response to the appeal of the President of the 
United States, the American people during Red 
Cross Week subscribed upward of |100,00.0,000, in 
order that the Red Cross might meet the extraord- 
inary needs this war has developed. Practically 
this entire sum was subscribed through Red 
Cross chapters during Red Cross week and up- 
on the condition that the local chapters might 
retain, for purposes of military relief to be 
expended by them, not to exceed 25 per cent, of the 
total subscribed. In some instances chapters have 
not felt the need of retaining any part of the sub- 
scription raised through them. 

About 150,000,000 of the subscription made dur- 
ing Red Cross Week has now been paid in. It is 
at this time impossible to forecast the total 
amount of the War Fimd which will be available 
for expenditure by the War Council. 

The pledging of so large a sum clearly betokened 
the desire of the American people that the Red 
Cross should measure up to the extraordinary de- 
mand upon merciful effort created by this the most 
tragic of all wars. 

Behind this contribution of money stand the 
3,621,000 members of the American Red Cross. 



The membership is constantly increasing, about 
1,000,000 names having been added to the list dur- 
ing the last month. These members, organized 
into 2400 chapters, are not only ready but are 
actually doing their part in the world-task the 
American Red Cross has undertaken. 

Obviously the great work undertaken by the Red 
Cross could not be accomplished without such sup- 
port, and while this statement will deal exclusively 
with the work in Europe and largely with the 
subject of appropriation of monies the importance 
of the making and furnishing of supplies by the 
women of the country must not be regarded as in 
any sense secondary. In a subsequent statement it 
is purposed to deal with this important subject. 
The Red Cross has not yet finally deter- 
mined its complete program of action, but at all 
times work which it may be called upon to do for 
our own Army will have first place in its con- 
sideration. Just what the Red Cross may be 
called upon to do for the American Army here 
and abroad cannot be fully determined until 
camps and cantonments in this country have 
been in operation, and more of our Army has 
arrived in France. 

The War Council has been impressed with 
the preparations made by the War and Navy 
Departments to care for the health and safety 
of the men composing our armed forces, but the 
American Red Cross regards it as an obligation to 
have available at all times a sufficient portion of 
its funds to enable it to perform any relief or 
emergency service for our own soldiers and 
sailors that may be needed. 



The needs of our Allies. 

The need for work among the armies and 
civilians of our allies is so vast that no definite 
plans can be laid out pending a complete first- 
hand report, not of the needs — they are without 
limit — but of what it is practicable for the Red 
Cross to do. 

By reason of the unique conditions — so far 
from home — surrounding American Red Cross 
effort in this war, and of the importance of all 
Red Cross work being conducted efficiently, 
economically and with the best American spirit, 
the War Council has sent to Europe five sep- 
arate commissions each composed of representa- 
tive Americans skilled in business administra- 
tion, in medical and surgical work, and in other 
lines of Red Cross effort. 

By reason of the crucial importance of the 
work in France, a Red Cross Commission to 
France was dispatched just as soon as it cou^d 
be organized after the appointment of the 
War Council. That commission, which has gen- 
eral supervision over the American Red Cross 
work in Europe, is headed by Major Grayson 
M-P. Murphy, himself a member of the War 
Council, and is composed of fourteen leading 
experts in special lines of work. 

The Commission to France has in a remarkably 
short period accomplished gratifjdng results. 

The Commission to Russia has re/?ently ar- 
rived in Petrograd, and the Commission to 
Ttnly reached Rome on Aug. 31. Commissions to 
Roumania and Serbia are now on their wav 



to those countries, and it is planned to send a 

comniission to Great Britain also. 



More Money will be needed. 

The work and policy of the American Red 
Cross will be determined and guided by the first- 
hand inquiries and the considered judgment of 
these commissions. Details concerning the 
commissions and the work already under 
way will be found in this statement; but 
information already at hand makes it clear that 
if the generous impulse behind the Red Cross 
movement in the United States is to find full 
expression, work for suffering humanity upon a 
scale beyond precedent or anticipation will have 
to be undertaken. This will require funds much 
in excess of those already pledged, and the situa- 
tion may become so urgent that it will be neces- 
sary to inaugurate, during the Christmas season, 
ano'f^her intensive campaign for money. 

Questions have been raised as to why work 
of such magnitude and consequence should not 
be an object of Government instead of private 
endeavor. The answer is threefold: 

1. The Red Cross, as a volunteer organization, 
offers the one medium through which the volun- 
teer spirit of the country may exert itself in the 
war. That volunteer spirit is a very precious asset 
and it should be guided and directed exclusively as 
a volunteer effort with enthusiasm, lack of red tape, 
and unlimited opportunity; 



2. Through the Red Cross alone can one half the 
nation, namely, the women, effectively serve their 
country in the war emergency; and 

3. Some such medium as the Red Cross, un- 
official and unmarshalled by the machine-like 
processes of government, is absolutely necessary 
to mobilize effectively the human, the humane and 
imaginative qualities necessary in alleviating the 
suffering so inevitable in war. 

This world calamity gives to the Eed Cross an 
opportunity to give expression to the best and 
most characteristic side of American life, and 
to do it on a scale called for by the immensity 
of the sorrow and distress of mankind. 



I. 



FRANCE 

The personnel of the Red Cross Commission 
in France is as follows : 

Major Grayson M-P. Murphy, head of Red 
Cross Commission to France and Red Cross 
Commissioner to Europe. Senior Vice-President 
of the Guaranty Trust Co., New York. 

James H. Perkins, Vice-President of National 
City Bank, New York. Authority on industrial 
organization. 

William Endicott, of Kidder, Peabody & Co., 
Boston. Overseer of Harvard College. Trus- 
tee of several Massachusetts hospitals and the 
Massachusetts School for the Blind. 

Carl Taylor, of Byrne, Cutcheon & Taylor, 
New York City. 

George B. Ford, of New York. Expert in town 
planning. 

Ernest McCullough, of Stone & Webster, 
Boston; an engineer. 

A. W. Copp, West Point graduate and veteran 
of Philippine campaign. In charge of U. S. 
Army Red Cross work. 



Ernest P. Bicknell, former Director General 
of Civilian Belief, American Bed Cross. In 
charge of relief work. 

Alexander Lambert, professor of Clinical 
Medicine at Cornell University Medical College, 
New York. Investigating tuberculosis and medical 
needs of France. 

H. 0. Beatty, of California. Former director 
of War Belief Clearing House. 

Balph Preston, of New York. Former director 
of War Belief Clearing House. 

Homer Folks, of New York. Expert in public 
relief work and care of destitute and delinquent 
children. 

Edward Eyre Hunt, in charge of work in 
Antwerp for Commission for Belief in Belgium, 
Later director of Bed Cross Bureau of Publica- 
tions. 

Joseph B. Swan, of Kean, Taylor & Co., New 
York bankers. 



Infant Welfare Unit 

Dr. William Palmer Lucas, Professor of Ped- 
iatrics in the University of California, Director; 
Dr. J. Morris Slemmons, of the Yale Medical 
School, an obstetrical, authority, Dn Julius 
Parker Sedgwick, physiological chemist, Pro- 
fessor at the University of Minnesota, Dr. John 
C. Baldwin Specialist in diseases of children. Dr. 
J. Isaac Durand, Dr. Clain F. Gelston, Dr. Lucas' 
assistant at the University of California, Dr. N. 
O. Pearce, Mrs. William P. Lucas, Mrs. J. Morris- 

8 



Slemmons, Miss Elizabeth. Slemmons, Miss Eliza- 
beth Ashe, Miss Rosamund Gilder. These women 
are specialists in child welfare work. 

Commission for thb 
Prevention of Tuberculosis 

(Conducted co-operatively by the Rockefeller 
Foundation and American Red Cross.) 

Dr. Livingston Farrand, Chairman, President 
of University of Colorado. 

Homer Folks, of New York, formerly Com- 
missioner of Charities of New York City. 

Selskar M. Gunn, of Boston. 

Medical Advisory Committee 

An advisory committee to direct medical and 
surgical research in France, under the Red Cross 
"Commission, has been appointed by Major 
Murphy. Heading the committee is Dr. Joseph 
A. Blake, with whom are associated Col. Ireland, 
of General Pershing's staff. Dr. Livingston Far- 
rand, a member of the Rockefeller Foundation 
and President of the University of Colorado ; Dr. 
Alexander Lambert, Dr. John M. Finney, Profes 
sor of Clinical Surgery at Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity; Drs. Richard Strong and W. B. Cannon, 
Professors at Harvard University ; Major George 
W. Crile, head of the Cleveland Base Hospital 
Unit, and discoverer of a method of eliminating 
surgical shock which is already reducing mortal- 
ity: and Dr. Hugh H. Young, Professor at Johns 
Hopkins University. 

9 



General Advisory Committee 

William G. Sharp, American Ambassador to 
France, 

James Stillman, Chairaian of Board of Direc- 
tors, National City Bank of New York City, 

Edward Tuck, of France. 

Many other important volunteers, men and 
women, are now working for the American Red 
Cross in France. No attempt will be made to 
give a complete list of personnel in this state- 
ment. 



The headquarters of American Red Cross work 
in Europe is, of course, in France. The personnel 
of the Commission, as above noted, shows the 
character and skill which have been enlisted 
in meeting the Red Cross problems in Europe. 

In spite of the very brief period of its stay 
in Paris the Red Cross Commission to France 
has already worked out a well ordered organiza- 
tion. It has perfected a complete understand- 
ing- Tvith French authorities, and Major Murphy 
has been made a member of General Pershing's 
staff, thus co-ordinating all American Red Cross 
effort with that of our Army in France. 

The Red Cross in France has assumed manage- 
ment of the War Relief Clearing House. It has 
taken over, under the control of the United 
States Army, the administration of the American 
Ambulance Hospital at Neuilly. It has assumed 
financial responsibility for Dr. J. A. Blake's 
American Hospital at Paris. It has allied with 

10 



itself the work of the American Surgical Dress- 
ings Committee, which distributed in France, 
in July, 782,949 dressings among 435 hospitals. 

The effort has been in accordance with the ex- 
pressed views of the President of the United 
States and of the civil and military authorities 
of France to co-ordinate along helpful lines, all 
relief work being done in France from America. 



GENERAL POLICIES. 



Objects sought by work in France. 

The general lines of activity undertaken in 
France by the American Red Cross have been 
determined after a careful survey of the situa- 
tion by the Red Cross Commission. These pur- 
poses may be outlined as follows: 

1. To establish and maintain hospitals for 
soldiers in the American Army in France ; 

2. To establish and maintain canteens, rest 
houses, recreation huts and other means of 
supplying the American soldiers with such com- 
forts and recreation as the Army authorities 
may approve; 

3. To establish and maintain in France can- 
teens, rest houses, recreation huts and other 
mean« of supplying comforts and recreation for 
the soldiers in the armies of our allies; 

4. To distribute hospital equipment and sup- 
plies of all kinds to military hospitals for sol- 
diers of the American or allied armies; 

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5. To engage in civilian relief, including: 

a — The care and education of destitute 
children ; 

b — Care of mutilated soldiers; 

— Care of sick and disabled soldiers; 

d — Relief work in the devastated areas of 
France and Belgium, such as furnish- 
ing to the inhabitants of these districts 
agricultural implements, household 
goods, foods, clothing and such tem- 
porary shelter as will enable them to 
return to their homes; 

e — To provide relief for and guard against 
the increase of tuberculosis. 

6. To furnish relief for soldiers and civilians 
held as prisoners by the enemy, and to give as- 
sistance to such civilians as are returned to 
France from time to time from the parts of 
Belgium and of France held by the enemy; 

7. To supply financial assistance to com- 
mittees, societies or individuals allied with the 
American Red Cross and carrying on relief 
work in Europe. 



The Needs of France. 

France has suffered beyond description. It 
will not be possible for the full force of American 
military effort to be felt in France for many 
months to come. To assist the French people in 
their very present distress is, therefore, not only 
an undertaking of the greatest mercy, but is 

U 



also the most effective work which can be done 
by the American people to strengthen the cour- 
age and keep vigorous the morale of both the 
French Army and the French people in this 
critical period. 

Every particle of strength and confidence 
which America can give to the French people 
while they wait for the coming of the 
American strong arm is a real contribution, 
not only toward relief but toward shortening 
of the war. If the matter be put on no other 
than a purely practical basis all the assistancQ 
we can render to France right now, either in 
caring for her sick and wounded or relieving 
her destitute people, is a means of reducing 
the number of Americans who may be killed or 
wounded in France. 

Our Army cannot get to France in force im- 
mediately, but the Red Cross is there, and it 
is the purpose of the Red Cross to see to it 
that both the French Army and the French 
people understand that the heart of the Amer- 
ican people is behind them, and that the im- 
pulses of that heart are expressed now in works 
of real mercy and assistance. 

Every appropriation which has been made 
for work in France has been with that thought 
in mind, and the policy which will be followed 
will be in the light of that obligation and priv- 
ilege. 



13 



MILITARY RELIEF. 



Work for the American Army. 

Speaking broadly, the first and supreme object of 
American Red Cross care is our own Army and 
Navy. Nothing that we can do to co-operate 
with the Army and Navy will be left undone. 
The safety, the health, the comfort of our men 
who are fighting the country's battles three thou- 
sand miles from home, will at all times be the 
prime objects of our attention. The Army will 
do its full part, but the Red Cross will stand 
ready to supplement in every possible way the 
efficient efforts our Army will make. 

The American Army in France is received in 
large reception camps on the coast, and after sev- 
eral weeks of preliminary training the men are 
sent across the country to permanent training 
camps back of the firing lines. Because of 
the overtaxed railroad conditions and the length 
of the route the transfer often occupies seventy- 
two hours. 

Along the route followed by the troops the Red 
Cross has established infirmaries and rest sta- 
tions, each in charge of an American trained nurse 
with an American man to assist her. Each in- 
firmary contains ten beds, a stock of drugs and 
other necessities. The seriously sick are cared 
for at French hospitals in the neighborhood. 
Daily calls are made upon the American sick 
in the hospitals by nurse and attendant, who take 
with them reading matter, tobacco, and other 
comforts. 

Additional infirmaries and rest stations will be 

14 



established in tlie near future, and adequate build- 
ings are also being erected wJierever needed. 

When our men reach their French base the Red 
Cross will continue to act as a friendly agency as 
opportunity may offer to supplement what the 
Army itself does to make the men comfortable. 

Canteens are being established by the Red Cross 
at railway stations where American soldiers on 
reserve duty or on leave, and those returning 
to or from duty, may lind rest and refreslunent. 
Baths, food, games and other comforts will be 
made available at these canteens. 

Nearly four million cigarettes, 20,000 packages 
of smoking tobacco and 10,000 cuts of chewing 
tobacco have already been sent to France i-- 
the use of our men. Red Cross Chapters in 
America are now working up 1,100,000 pound;' 
of knitting wool into garments for the use o' 
soldiers and sailors both in France and in this 
Country this winter. 

When American troops start for France, the 
men are given comfort kits. Each kit contains 
heavy socks, handkerchiefs, wash-cloth and soap, 
pencil and writing-paper, a pipe and "the mak- 
ings", playing cards, a mouth-organ or game, but- 
tons, pins and other small articles. Christmas par- 
cels will be sent over later. The Red Cross expects 
to see to it that no American soldier or sailor is 
forgotten at Christmas time. 

Anaesthetics and Surgical Apparatus. 

In response to an urgent cablegram from Major 
Murphy, the Red Cross is planning to ship to 
Europe 100,000 one-half pound tins of ether. 

15 



The War Council, in addition, has authorized 
Major Murphy to establish, as soon as practicable, a 
central plant to manufacture nitrous oxygen, or 
"laughing gas", one of the most effective and harm- 
less of anaesthetics for short operations. 

American machinery will be shipped to France 
for this purpose, and American operatives will be 
sent over to conduct the plant. 

Also, by reason of the shortage of surgical appar- 
atus, the Red Cross has planned to establish in 
France a small factory for the repair of surgical 
apparatus and the manufacture of the more simple 
instruments. Four men, expert in the repair of 
orthopedic appliances are to go to France imme- 
diately and the necessary manufacturing machin- 
ery will be sent over as soon as it can be obtained. 



Medical Research in France. 

The War Council has appropriated $100,000 
for medical research work in France. 

This action followed a report from the Red 
Cross Commission in France to National Head- 
quarters as follows: 

An extraordinary opportunity presents itself here for 
medical research work. We have serving with various 
American units some of the ablest doctors and surgeons 
in the United States. Many of these men are already 
conducting courses of investigation which if carried to 
successful conclusions will result in the discovery of 
treatments and methods of operation which will be of 
great use not only in this war out, possibly for years 
afterwards. To carry on their work they need certain 
special laboratory equipment, and suitable buildings. 
At present equipment and personnel cannot be ob- 

16 



tained through ordinary government sources without 
delay, which makes this source of supply quite im- 
practicable. 

Enthusiastic co-operation with the Red Cross 
in its plans for medical research work in France 
was pledged by Dr. George W. Crile, of Cleve- 
land, 0., who headed the first Red Cross unit to 
reach France; Dr. Lambert, Dr. J. A. Blake and 
Colonels Ireland and Bradley of General Persh- 
ing's staff. 

All recommendations to the Red Cross War" 
Council covering appropriations or work of a 
medical, surgical or hospital character are, be- 
fore being made by the French Commission, 
submitted to an advisory medical board in 
France, composed of leading American doctors 
working with our own forces in that country. 
Such recommendations are also laid before the 
Red Cross Medical Advisory Board in this 
country, of which Dr. Simon Flexner is chair- 
man. The Red Cross War Council thus has at 
its disposal in this vital matter the most expert 
advice obtainable. 

Hospital Warehouse Service. 

To be able to do it£ work without delay, the 
Red Cross is establishing warehouses at differ- 
ent points of importance in the French theatre of 
war. An appropriation of $519,000 has been voted 
to establish this service and provide its first stock 
of supplies. 

How to coordinate all the military hospitals 
maintained by American and other foreign so- 

17 



cieties and individuals, and to provide them with 
the supplies and materials they needed at a mini- 
mum cost, was one of the first problems under- 
taken by the Red Cross Commission on its ar- 
rival in Paris. 

Several warehouses are now being established 
throughout France as a part of the new Hospital 
Supply Service. Here drugs, medicines, sur- 
gical instruments and other supplies will be avail- 
able for all hospitals in the department in which 
the warehouse is located. Orders can be filled 
promptly without even awaiting approval from 
Paris. 

As Director of the new Hospital Supply Ser- 
vice the War Council is sending to France Stan- 
ley Field, of Marshall Field & Co. of Chicago, 
Assisting Mr. Field and in charge of the var- 
ious warehouses, will be business or profes- 
sional men volunteering their services for the 
period of the war. Five of these have already 
been selected and are now on their way to re- 
port to Major Murphy. These men are: John 
Woodward of the Curtis Publishing Company, 
New York City; Todd W. Lewis, of Minneapolis, 
Minnesota; Kennard Windsor, of Boston, Mass.; 
J. Shelden Tilney of New York, and Russell 
Armstrong, also of New York. As an operating 
force for these warehouses, the Red Cross mil 
recruit in the United States a force of five hun- 
dred men over military- age. Men of experience 
in the building of warehouse?; and the handling 
of stores, will be preferred. 

What this hospital supply service will mean in 
increasing the effectiveness of many of the war 



18 



hospitals in France is shown in a message re- 
ceived from Dr. Harvey Gushing, of Boston, now 
a Major in the United States Army and in com- 
mand of Red Cross Base Hospital No. 5, which is- 
in use behind the British lines in France. 
Major Gushing wrote in part: 

I cannot tell you how cheered I was when I found 
how well organized the Red Cross was in Paris and 
what a great start you had made. 

'When an American officer could actually walk into 
the warehouse you had taken over and And Squibbs and 
Mallinckrodt's ether, bathrobes, adhesive plaster, aspirin, 
surgical instruments, kerosene lamps, canvas aprons, as- 
pirating needles and many other things which our camps 
happen to need, I for the first time began to realize 
what the Red Cross might be able to do for waifs like 
ourselves over here. 

Since we are almost the first people to come, there 
was no reason for us to expect that we should find you 
so well prepared and equipped at the present stage of 
our participation in the war. 

It all goes to show what an enormously important 
part the Red Cross will undoubtedly come to play as 
more people come over and our affairs overseas get 
more and more complicated. 

Unquestionably countless emergencies will arise and 
•udden calls such as ours will be made for odd and 
diverse things ; and I hope that we may see huge storr- 
houscs established under you where those in need can 
jS:et the supplies which are absolutely essential to their 
work — whether it be an automobile or a hypodermic 
needle. 

Certainly the people at home will subscribe with 
their accustomed liberality to an organization of this 
kind and you will do as much toward winning the war 
as the men who carry the rifles. 

roodstufTs for the Sick and Needy. 

In response to a cable from the Commission 
in France, the War Council appropriated $1,- 

19 



500,000 to purchase food stuff to be sent to 
France. The cable was as follows: 

We hope you will use all transportation you can pos- 
sibly secure to ship to us the following supplies. We 
must begin to prepare for the coming hard winter, and 
you cannot possibly send us more than we need of the 
following list, except where definite amounts are speci- 
fied: 

Twenty 4-ton motor trucks ; 50,000 yards of flannel ; 
condensed milk ; flour ; dried preserved vegetables ; 
corned beef; rice; beans; canned beef; preserved 
fruits ; sugar ; heavy shoes ; blankets ; knitting wool ; 
heavy white cotton sheeting. 

The foodstuffs purchased will be used particular 
ly for the relief of sick, wounded and starv- 
ing people. They will be carefully stored in 
France so as to be ready for any emergency 
which may confront either our own soldiers nv^ 
sailors in France or the French population itself. 

Through the courtesy of Mr. Herbert Hoover 
and Mr. W. L. Honnold, of the Commission for 
Relief in Belgium, these foodstuffs^ were bought 
through the very efficient purchasing organiza- 
tion of that commission. The Commission for 
Kelief in Belgium very Idndly offered to do this 
work for the Bed Cross at a merely nominal 
Hiargp for overhead expenses. 



Supplies Purchased In France. 

The War Council has also appropriated $1,- 
000,000. for the purchase of supplies in France, 
all for use in the hospital supply service. In 
reference to the items to be purchased in France, 
Major Murphy advised as follows: 

2« 



We have opportunities to purchase locally splendid 
stock of blankets, hospital clothing of all kinds and oth?r 
hospital supplies absolutely necessary, after thorough in- 
vestigation and study of situation. 

We have also located supplies of preserved food- 
stuffs, exactly suited to our needs, and we expect to be 
called on immediately to undertake certain temporary 
relief work in devastated regions, probably in accord- 
ance with plans worked out to meet the views of Gen- 
eral Pershing and the French Army. 

Our transportation problem is tremendous, and we 
must be in a position to prepare for it promptly. By 
buying here, we get immediate delivery and avoid trans- 
portation difficulties. We also place ourselves in a posi- 
tion where we can very largely take care of emergen- 
cies, not only for France but for our own Army. 

We are working as an absolute unit with the chief 
medical officers of our own Army here, and they desire 
us to accumulate a reasonable reservoir of supplies on 
which they can draw in case of emergency. 

Certain immediate purchases are necessary in order 
to avoid loss of material. It is absolutely necessary for 
us to take a position where we can properly care for our 
own troops. 



Tobacco for the Troops. 

The Eed Cross recently received the follow- 
ing cablegram from its Commission to France: 
Please arrange to ship ten tons tobacco earliest date; 
60 per cent, cigarette mixture ; 20 per cent, pipe tobacco ; 
20 per cent, chewing tobacco. For use of troops. No 
suitable tobacco obtainable here. Supply American to- 
bacco exhausted. Y. M. C. A. shipment lost. Prompt 
shipment important. 

The War Council, therefore, availed itself of 
a very generous offer of the Liggett & Myers 
Tobacco Co., and the Lorillard Company to donate 
for the use of American troops abroad 3,000,000 

21 



cigarettes, 20,000 packages of smoking tobacco 
and 10,000 ten-cent cuts of chewing tobacco. 

A large consignment of tobacco was accord- 
ingly forwarded immediately. The French Go- 
vernment having arranged to admit free of duty 
all articles consigned to American troops, 
chocolate, tobacco, cigarettes, games, playing 
cards and other ''comforts" are permitted fre« 
entry. 



Red Cross Transportation Service. 

Fundamental to all Ked Cross and all other 
American activities in France, and indeed in all 
Europe, is the problem of transportation. Mater- 
ials must be gotten across the Atlantic, they must 
reach the place in the interior where they are 
needed. 

A Red Cross transportation service has accord- 
ingly been established to handle the vast quantities 
of medical and relief supplies now being shipped 
almost daily to France, Belgium, Serbia, Russia 
and other belligerent countries. 

This new branch of Red Cross activities was 
made possible through the cooperation of the 
French, British and Italian governments, the 
United States Shipping Board and the leading 
steamship and railroad corai\anies. President 
Wilson has taken a personal interest in the es- 
tablishment of this service. His aid and that of 
Chairman Edward N. Hurley, of the Shipping 
Board, formerly a member of the Red Cross War 
Council, have been invaluable to its success. 

22 



Practically all the cargo space needed for the 
shipment of Red Cross supplies abroad has now 
been placed at the disposal of the War Council. 
Much of it has been given free bj the steamship 
companies and the allied governments. This 
will be used only for supplies most urgently 
needed abroad. 

The Red Cross will have cargo space on every 
steamer chartered by the United States Shipping 
Board. Army transports also will carry Red 
Cross supplies. Practically every line has made 
reductions in its passenger rates for Red Cross 
nurses and representatives traveling in Europe. 

In making its o^ean shipping arrangements, it 
will be the policy of the Red Cross to distribute 
shipments among as many steamers as possible. 
By using all available lines losses at sea, if sus- 
tained, will not seriously interrupt th^ Red 
Cross work of mercy. 



Motor Transport Service. 

Materials can be conveyed across the At- 
lantic in transports, but upon arrival at the 
French port the vitally necessary step is to get 
them where they are needed in the quickest 
possible time. 

The French railroads are overtaxed, and their 
facilities must be available for the military 
needs of the Army. The Red Cross has accord- 
ingly determined to develop its own motor trans- 
port service. This has called for an original 
investment of considerable size, but it was fun- 
damentally necessary and will make it possible 

23 



for Eed Cross service to be flexible and elastic 
to an immensly important degree. 

The first unit of trucks has been forwarded. 

The unit now being forwarded will be com- 
pletely equipped and manned, ready for im- 
mediate service. Fifty experienced men — includ- 
ing drivers, mechanics, body-builders, painters 
and other craftsmen — will be inclucJed in the per- 
sonnel. Practically all of these men will receive 
special training in their respective tasks and will 
be given sufficient military instruction to meet 
the requirements of service with the fighting 
forces in Europe. 



Canteens and Rest Stations. 

The War Council has been trying to find out 
just what the Red Cross could do to hearteD 
the French army and to give to French soldiers 
a concrete token of American co-operation. 
When the question was put to French army offi- 
cers, they said: ''Give us canteens and rest 
stations." 

The poilus come out of the trenches, to go 
home on leave, mud-stained, and reeking with 
vermin. 

In that condition they are marched to the 
nearest railroad stop where, perhaps, they find 
a little station with scanty accommodations for 
a dozen passengers. 

At each of these places the Red Cross is 
establishing shower-baths, laundries, and mending 
and disinfecting rooms. Then there will be rest- 

24 



rooms, with books, writing materials and games. 
Some of the stations will have dormitories and 
lunch rooms. 

The soldier on his way home will thus be in 
a very different frame of mind from what he 
would have been otherwise and it will be a 
source of help and encouragement that this i •■ 
ticular form of assistance is rendered by Amer- 
icans. 



Canteens in the Field. 

Near the firing line the Red Cross is establish- 
ing field canteens. Extending the work already 
begun by the French Red Cross, it will provide 
one of these canteens for every corps of the 
French Army and as well as later for the Ameri- 
can Army. 

Such canteens are placed in or near the second 
line, and the refreshing drinks are carried riol.t 
into the front trenches. Each station can keep 
about 125 gallons of hot drinks at the boiling 
point. Four thousand portions — coffee, tea, 
cocoa, bouillon, lemonade, mint — are sometimes 
served from one canteen in a single day. 

Here, too, American workers will be found. 
The ''convoyer" in charge of the canteen will 
be a Red Cross man, with French soldiers to 
help him. Many of the poilus will get their 
first glimpse of the American uniform in this 
way. 

To carry out these plans the War Council 
has made appropriations of about $700,000 which 



25 



will establish the canteens and maintain them for 
about three months. Much of the equipment will 
be supplied by the French Army. 

In recommending the foregoing appropriation, 
Major Murphy sent the following cablegram to 
the War Council: 

Great assistance can be given the French Army by 
co-operating in the organization of canteens, resting and 
sleeping quarters for men passing to and from the front. 

At points where trains must be changed, ordinary 
station facilities are absolutely inadequate and men re- 
turning tired and dirty from trenches wait many lonj 
hours and often over night for train connections and 
sleep on exposed platforms and in all available comeri. 

Buffets are v^^anted beyond any possible capacity. 
These men averaging several thousand at each station 
daily should be provided with proper hot food at low 
prices, proper sleeping and reading rooms and given 
facilities for vs^ashing and disinfection from disease-car- 
rying trench vermin which otherwise would be brought 
into homes while men returning to the front would be 
given additional stimulus and enthusiasm through such 
special attention on the part of American women, all of 
which tends to develop better morale as well as physique 

Work can be and should be started immediately to 
provide against particular hardships of winter month*. 

Remember that the diseases brought from the 
trenches to the homes constitute a grave menace, al«o 
that long journeys in an exhausted condition deprive 
men of necessary power of resistance. 

We believe no work more immediately important ti 
safeguard the homes and the soldiers and to convince 
the country at large that we are working witli them, amd 
earnestly recommend an appropriation for the pui-pose. 

The entire plan will be carried out in accordance 
with the views of General Pershing and the Frendi 
Army. We are working in close touch with the Young 
Men's Christian Association, who are entirely in accord 
with our undertaking this work in certain definite 
districts. 

26 



The work will be handled at first by American 
women already in France. We will advise you as we 
need additional women, but we will organize them here. 



Base Hospitals. 

Shortly after the beginuing of the war in 
Europe, the American Red Cross began to pre- 
pare for the call that has since been made upon 
it. Colonel Jefferson R. Kean, of the United 
States Medical Corps, was detailed to Ked Cross 
Cross service as Director-General of Military Re- 
lief. He proceeded at once to organize base hos- 
pital units in connection with medical centers 
like the Presbyterian, Mount Sinai, Believue 
and Post-Graduate Hospitals in New York; the 
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston; the 
Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore; the Lake- 
side Hospital in Cleveland, and others in St. 
Louis, Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere. 

Each of these base hospitals has a staff of 22 
physicians, two dentists, 65 Red Cross nurses 
and 150 enlisted men of the Army Medical Corps. 
Before war was declared, twenty-six of these 
units had been formed, while the total number 
of units ready for service is now 47. Through 
the American Red Cross and private donations 
each unit purchased equipment for five hundred 
beds and stored it away for use in war time. 
It costs at an average of $75,000 to equip a 
base hospital with beds, blankets, sterilizers, op- 
erating-tables, tents, dental outfits, automobiles 
and kitchens. 



27 



In advance of the fighting forces the United 
States sent to the European battlefields six base 
hospitals — organized during the last year by the 
Eed Cross — the first United States Army organ- 
ization sent to Europe. These were sent at the 
request of the British Commission. 

More than a dozen base hospitals organized b\ 
the American Eed Cross are now seeing active ser- 
vice in France, and others are rapidly being 
made ready for foreign service. 

New Uniforms for Americain Nurses. 

On account of the limited laundry facilities in 
France, it has been decided that Red Cross nurses 
with base hospitals and other military hospitals in 
France shall wear gray uniforms instead of the 
usual white. The War Council has appropriated 
sufficient funds to supply the American nurses now 

in service abroad with the new uniforms. 

# * * 

The whole Red Cross campaign in France is 
being carried through in close co-operation with 
General Pershing. The Red Cross is in perfect 
accord with the medical officers on his staff, and 
nothing which we can possibly forsee to save the 
soldiers of our army from suffering or hardship 
will be left uncovered. 



CIVILIAN RELCEF. 



Prevention of Tuberculosis. 

Nothing is so vital in France as to free the coun- 
try so far as possible from tuberculosis. It is esti- 

28 



mated that some 500,000 persons are afflicted with 
the disease as the direct result of the war. Scien- 
tific efforts to control the spread of the malady are 
not only of supreme concern to France herself, but 
they are of great importance in making France 
healthy for our own troops. 

The Red Cross is accordingly co-operating with 
the Rockefeller Foundation in financing a commis- 
sion for the prevention of tuberculosis, the Rocke- 
feller Foundation paying administrative expenses. 
The commission sent to France is headed by 
Dr. Livingston Farrand, President of the Uni- 
versity of Colorado, and formerly President of 
the National Association for the Study and Pre- 
vention of Tuberculosis. The sending of the 
commission was preceded by a very careful sur- 
vey of the situation by Dr. Herman M. Biggs, of 
New York City, formerly Health Commissioner 
of New York State. 

The work is beginning on a modest scale, the 
service to be extended as opportunity may offer 
and results justify. All work is being done 
under the general administration of the French 
Government, and by French people. 

The administration of the work is centered in 
Paris, in co-operation with the Central Committee 
for the Aid of Tubercular Soldiers. The central 
administration will conduct an intensive education- 
al work by means of four mobile educational units. 
These educational units are establishing local anti- 
tuberculosis dispensaries. 

Four training centers for educating workers 
to man these dispensaries are being established 
and maintained; one in Paris, one in Bordeaux, 
one in Lyons and one in Marseilles. It is ex- 

29 



pected that ultimately France will have between 
300 and 400 anti-tubercular dispensaries, and 
upon them will fall the burden of controlling 
tuberculosis in France. They will be maintained 
largely by local funds. 

In connection with each of the dispensarip.s 
provided three factors will be needed, which it is 
proposed the Red Cross shall provide, except in 
so far as they may be provided by French public 
authorities, organizations or citizens, viz: 

(a) Special home relief for destitute families in 
which there is a case of tuberculosis, this relief being 
of such nature and amount as the sanitary conditions 
require ; 

(b) A hospital to which moderate and advanced 
cases, whose home conditions are such that they cannot 
remain at home without being a menace to their fam- 
ilies may be sent. It is not expected that these pa- 
tients will recover, though they may improve, and the 
primary object of the hospital is not the cure, but the 
safeguarding of the health of other members of the 
family by removing the tuberculosis patients. 

(c) Special provision for the care of children who 
have already been intimately exposed to a serious case 
of tuberculosis. This provision may either be institu- 
tional, with a special "regime" and special feeding in 
the nature of a preventorium; or it may be the estab- 
lishment of a special "regime" with medical and nurs- 
ing supervision and special food in the homes of the 
children. 

A Tuberculosis Sanitarium. 

In addition to the foregoing, the Red Cross 
Commission in France has just advised that it 
had arranged, on the invitation of the sanitary 

80 



service of the French Army, to proceed at once 
to complete the unfinished building of the tuber- 
culosis sanitorium at Bligny, some twenty miles 
from Paris. This admirable institution, which 
is in many respects a model, was occupying about 
one-half of its proposed plant when the war 
broke out. A large building, intended to accom- 
modate two hundred patients, was about eighty 
per cent, completed. The walls, floors and roof 
were completed, doors and windows in place, but 
heating, lighting and plumbing were lacking. 
All work was discontinued on the opening day 
of the war, and everything has remained to the 
present day just as it was left. It is estimated 
that even at present prices the building can be 
completed at a cost of 180,000 francs ($36,000.) 
and made ready for use before winter. On the 
invitation of the Army authorises and with 
the approval of the Sanatorium Association, the 
American Red Crof^s will accordingly proceed to 
complete the building. It will be used by the 
military authorities during the war, and will 
then revert to the Sanatorium Association. 

ReBlef of Sick and Wounded. 

The American Red Cross has appropriated 
$1,000,000 for the relief of sick and wounded 
French soldiers and their families. 

A portion of this amount will be used for the 
aid of such sick and wounded soldiers in the 
French Army as may be considered in special 
need by the French commftnding generals. The 
relief to the families of sick and wounded 



31 



soldiers is to be handled through the agency of 
the Conseils Generaux, non-political bodies com- 
posed of representative citizens, meeting in each 
Department of France -with, the purpose of con- 
sidering the physical needs of their various dis- 
tricts. This form of distribution has been recom- 
mended by the French Ministry for Foreign 
Affairs as the best possible means of effectively 
aiding the largest possible number of needy 
families. 

An Infant Welfare Unit. 

Before the war the birthrate and deathrate ii^ 
France were so nearly equal that publicists voiced 
their concern over the future of the national 
life. Last year, however, with the deathrate 
probably over 20 per 1000, not counting deaths 
of men in military service, the birthrate was 
ofScially estimated at only 8 per 1000. In New 
York State the birthrate is 23 or 24 per 1000, th^ 
deathrate about 14 per 1000. 

The total deaths in France in 1916 were about 
1 ,100,000. Births numbered only 312,000. The 
net loss in population was 788,000, or nearly two 
per cent, of the whole. In Paris, where 48,917 
babies were born in the year ending August 1. 
1914, only 26,179 were born in the second year of 
the war ending August 1, 1916. 

There is urgent need for effective work among 
children, Major Murphy cabled. He reported 
that there was also special need for doctors 
and nurses for work with mothers and children. 
The Red Cross accordingly organized and sent to 
France an infant welfare unit. 

SS 



These specialists are surveying the situation 
and studying the work already being done by 
the French. They are practicing among the 
people without receiving compensation from 
patients. 

The task before the Red Cross, which is being 
carried on by this unit and will be by succeeding 
units, is not only to co-operate with French 
specialists but also to conduct a general educa- 
tional campaign among French mothers in the 
interest of better prenatal hygiene and scientific 
feeding and care of the babies. Special efforts 
will be made to protect children from tubercular 
infection. 



Special Relief for Children. 

As an example of the activities of the Amer- 
ican Red Cross in behalf of the civil population 
of France, the War Council has received the 
following report from the Commission in France : 

We have established a temporary childrens' shelter 
at Toul, a city in a section of the war zone recently 
bombarded by the enemy. 

Gas bombs were being used by the Germans and' 
the inhabitants of the nearby villages were obUged to 
wear face masks to escape asphyxiation. This mode of 
protection, however, is not feasible for children, and it 
was found necessary to send the children away at once. 

The prefect of the Department telegraphed to a 
worker in Paris that 750 children had been suddenly 
thrust upon his hands and that he needed immediate 
assistance. 

' The next day eight workers left the Red Cross head- 
quarters, a doctor, an experienced nurse, two auxiliary 
nurses, a bacteriologist, an administrative director and 

33 



two women to take charge of the bedding, clothing, 
food, etc. 

They found tliat 2i of tht children were infants 
under one year and the remainder were under eight 
years. They were herded together in an old barracks, 
dirty, practically unfurnished and with no sanitary ap- 
pliances. Sick children were crowded in with the well, 
and skin disease and vermin abounded. 

Within two days the children had been thoroughly 
cleaned and transferred to a new and clean barracks. 
Medical care had been given and nurses secured for the 
babies, suitable food provided and a classification of all 
the refugees made to prevent the separation of members 
of the same family. The organization of an institution 
for the care of these children has been worked out. 

The French Government has provided a new brick 
barracks of ten buildings, situated on a hillside a mile 
from Toul, and will furnish coal, water, light, rough 
labor, beds and bedding, rations and transportation of 
supplies. 

The Red Cross is to direct the work of supplying 
doctors, nurses and administrative officers, and of in- 
stalling sanitary apparatus. Twelve shower baths have 
already been set up. SuppHes are being provided for 
recreation, education and the vocational training of 
children. 

It is expected that four or five hundred more chil- 
dren will come in the near future, and the Red Cross is 
planning to increase its staff to care for this number. 
The children will be kept here as long as conditions 
remain such that they cannot return to their homes. 

Relief for Refugees. 

A peculiar call for relief in France is on be- 
half of French refugees. The people come 
from the regions devastated by the German 
army, having either fled on the original ap- 
proach of the invader, having been driven out 
by the German army before the evacuation, 
or having been sent back into Germany and forced 

34 



out over the Swiss and French frontiers. 

The number of destitute refugees in France, 
in March 1917, was stated by the Ministry of 
the Interior to be 400,000, but there is reason 
to think that the number is much larger. The 
position of refugees is becoming more difficult 
as the cost of food rises. Their housing condi- 
tions are also bad in many instances, especially 
in the cities. The relief agencies report that 
in the cities an entire family often resides in a 
single room. When persons live under these 
conditions of bad housing and malnutrition, 
disease is sure to take hold and increase. 

Repatriated Frenchmen from the occupied re- 
gions of France are now beiug brought to France 
via Switzerland at an average of about a thousand 
a day. At Evian they are examined and those who 
are ill are put into hospitals, whence they are dis- 
patched, either to a relative or to the town or vil- 
lage on which they are billeted. Large numbers 
come to Paris. They arrive from Germany in 
most cases insufficiently clad and in very bad 
physical and mental condition. 

The German Government has always been care- 
ful to keep as secret as possible its intention to 
return civilians. On more than ^ne occasion as 
many as a thousand refugees have come over the 
frontier without notice. The effort of the Red 
Cross is to endeavor to separate the large num- 
ber showing evidences of tuberculosis infection 
from the others, and to have them placed in 
special hospitals. 

Arrangements are being made by the Red Cross 
to furnish in Eviaji and the neighborhood an am- 



S5 



balance servke in connection with the hospitals 
and rest houses for the reception of these "repa- 
tries." 

A large number of these refugees require further 
assistance. The agencies from which they are al- 
ready receiving aid are not in a position to increase 
the amount of relief given. 

The American Red Cross, therefore, plans to be 
able to take care temporarily of these returning 
populations, and have facilities available tem- 
porarily to aid in clothing, feeding and housing any 
number from five thousand to a hundred thousand. 

Relief of Sick and Disabled Soldiers. 

The sick and disabled men discharged from the 
Army on account of wounds or physical disabilities 
are divided into two classes: 

1. (Mutiles.) Those discharged or account of 
wounds (this class receives a pension) ; 

2. (Reformes.) Those discharged on account of 
physical disabilities (this class receives no pension). 
The number of class 2 was stated, in April, 1917, to be 
300,000. 

Probably the majority of class 2 are tubercular. 
Dr. Biggs estimates the number of tubercular 
''reformes" at 150,000. 

Many of the "reformes" who are not tubercular 
are so broken in health that their earning power 
is slight. When they are discharged from the 
Army, separation allowance to their wives and 
children ceases. The family needs assistance until 
the man recovers and finds employment, or if un- 
employable, they may require relief indefinitely. 

36 



The uniforms of many of these discharged men are 
taken from them soon after their discharge, and 
they have no money with which to buy clothes. 

The work which the Ked Cross has undertaken 
will comprise giving temporary relief to the man 
immediately after their discharge from the Army, 
and more permanent relief to the tubercular and 
unemployable. For the tubercular, special provi- 
sion must be made, and in some cases, hospital care 
must be secured. 



The Re-education of "Wlutiles". 

The re-education of mutilated soldiers is being 
carried on partly by the Government and partly 
by private organizations supported by voluntary 
contributions. There are between 50 and 60 
schools for this work but many of them are small. 
There are a few, large and important, which are 
believed to be doin^ excellent work and which 
could extend their work and improve it if a rea- 
sonable amount of additional money were pro- 
vided. 

The American Red Cross is, at the present 
time, as an experiment, providing about 15 
''mutiles" per week with artificial limbs. This 
means that in 12 weeks, a total of 180 persons will 
have been supplied. The average cost of an 
artifical limb is about $80. 

The Red Cross has also undertaken to aid 
in establishing homes for a small number of 
blind soldiers, who have been re-educated and 
are to earn their living henceforth. 

37 



The Relief of Families. 

It is not the policy of the Eed Cross to re- 
build the villages of France, but it is our hope 
to be able to give a new start in life to a large 
number of persons who have been left destitute 
by the ravages of the German army. These 
populations, suffering from many forms of 
discouragement, the chief of which is separation 
from their homes and families, are largely idle. 
Many of them are too old to adapt themselves to 
new conditions and can be serviceable only in 
the districts from which they came. 

From the purely economic consideration of 
making it possible for this excess of people to 
recommence their usual labor and to regain 
the self esteem that results from self support 
the necessity of providing some form of habita- 
tion in which to work cannot be exaggerated. 
To aid them get started in life again is surely 
an effort which must appeal to everyone. 

The Red Cross has accordingly appropriated 
$403,090 for a provisional experiment in this 
direction, the plans for the experiment having 
been worked out in France by Mr. Homer Folks, 
one of the most competent of living authorities on 
the relief of dependents. 

The plan undertaken is to reconstitute 60 
families in each of four villages. Each family 
is to consist of five persons, including in some 
cases persons not actually members of the family. 
There will be a total of 300 persons per village 
and of 1,200 persons for the entire enterprise. 

The Red Cross hopes and expects to do no 



38 



more than to help these stricken people help 
themselves. But it does expect that its effort 
in that direction will be a source of aid and 
encouragement to a great many beyond those 
immediately affected. 

In reference to these efforts at rehabilitation; 
the Red Cross Commission to France has just 
reported as follows: 

Our feeling is here that we should aim to give the 
dweller in the devastated regions a shelter which 
will keep out wind and weather for two or three years, 
during which period he will have time to get on his 
feet and do his own permanent reconstruction work. 
However, owing to the location of materials and th« 
transportation situation, we may often find that we 
can at less cost do concrete construction work or 
brick work than wood work, and under these circum- 
stances we should do that kind of construction which 
is cheapest. We plan, for instance, to establish at 
various points in the devastated regions, brick yards. 
Through these yards Ave can supply bricks for con- 
struction purposes at a much cheaper cost and much 
more rapidlv than we could furnish lumber for con- 
tractors' shacks. In every case our governing prin- 
ciple Avill be to spend the least possible money in the 
least possible time in providing a dwelling for a 
given individual family. I may add that I am very 
hopeful that we can put a great many people under 
shelter simplv by renairing those houses which have 
merely shell holes in the roofs and in the walls. In 
many cases the beams which unite the top walls have 
been cut away by the Germans, so that the tendency 
of the roofs is to thrust the walls apart, bu^ I believe 
we can tie the walls together with steel or wire from 
the wire entans'lements and military Avorks in the 
neighborhood of the devastated villages. T believe that 
with great speed and with very small expense Ave can 
make livable a substantial number of housles in the 
course of the next few months. 



Co-operation with tlie Friends' Society. 

In this work of rehabilitation the Red Cross 
has established a plan of co-operation with the 
Friends both from the United States as well as 
from England. 

The American Friends' National Service Com- 
mittee as a preparatory step to the practical 
service it has organized, is training the Ameri- 
can Friends' Reconstruction Unit of one hun- 
dred men at Haverford, Pennsylvania. 

This unit was put in training about the middle 
of July, under a corps of practical instructors, 
including six native French teachers. The train- 
ing includes instruction in the mending of roads, 
the building of portable houses, first aid, the 
operation of automobiles, bricklaying and car- 
pentry, the French language, and in every foriv 
of relief work. 

Scarcely had the instruction begun when a 
cablegram was received from Major Murphy in 
Paris requesting the immediate dispatch of the 
Haverford unit for urgent standardization work 
in France. 

Accordingly, the hundred trained workers plan 
to leave early in September. Their work will be 
altogether with the civil population in the de- 
vastated area. Entrance into the zone for this 
work is by special permission of the French 
government. The members of the unit will wear 
the Red Cross uniform. With the unit will go 
large supplies of equipment, including tractors, 
road-bnilding machinery, trucks, motor cars anrl 
motorcycles, portable houses, agricultural ma- 
chinery, and three months' food supplies. 

40 



In addition to this American effort, the follow- 
ing cablegram dated Aug. 28 from Major Murphy- 
speaks for itself. 

The American Red Cross and the English Friends 
Relief Committee for the Victims of the War estab- 
lished on Saturday last an effective basis of active co- 
operation. The English Friends have 150 workers in 
France and an American unit of 100 is about to sail, 
and is likely to be followed later by an addition of 150. 

The work done by the English Friends has been 
carefully looked into by the American Red Cross. It 
deals with the care of refugees from the war area and 
with reconstruction and rehabilitation in the devastated 
areas. It has been supported by gifts from friends in 
England and America. 

The American Red Cross is so impressed by the spirit 
and efficiency of the work that it has made an appro- 
priation of francs 533,000 ($106,600) for necessary 
plant and equipment for the immediate extension of the 
work, including an addition to the furniture fund, en- 
larging the Maternity Hospital, establishing a new 
refuge for children, a new work-shop and construction 
camp for making temporary houses, building materials 
for 100 temporary houses, agricultural machinery, in- 
cluding thrashing machines and a stock of smaller 
agricultural implements and tools for distribution. 

With this added plant and equipment, the additional 
workers from America will be fully utilized and the de- 
mands upon the Friends in both England and America 
for even larger gifts for maintenance of the work wiJl 
be increased. 

The Friends who are enlisted in this work are 
conscientious objectors to war, but they will be a 
powerful factor in remedying the evils of war. 



41 



SUMMARY 

Detail of Appropriations in France. 

The work described above, as well as all other 
activities of the Red Cross in France are 
covered in the complete list set forth below ■ 
appropriations made by the War Council for 
work in that country. The total amount of such 
appropriations up to Aug. 31. 1917, was 
110,692,601. 

The detail of tho appropriations follows: 



Appropriations for Military Work in France 

Budget to cover period until Nov. 1, 1917; 
prepared by J. H. Perkins, Directors of Depart- 
ment of Military Affairs, Red Cross Commis- 
sion in France : 

Work in connection with the United States 
Army, such as equipment and operation 
of rest stations and infirmaries, enlisted 
men's clubs, a portable hospital and base 
hospitals $220,575.0C 

Divided as follows : 

Rest stations and infirmaries $134,940 

Enlisted men's clubs 4,325 

Base hospitals „ 73,525 

Portable hospital 7,785 

American Red Cross Hospital supply service 519,000.00 

Equipmf^nt and operation of diet kitchens 

in French hospitals 2,162.50 

American Eed Cross surgical dressings 
service 17,300.00 

42 



(This provides for that branch of Red 
Cross work formerly conducted by the 
Surgical Dressings Committee and 
which is now allied to the Red Cross 
organization.) 

Canteens at the front 50,689.00 

(This work includes co-operation with 
French Red Cross in operating canteens 
for French soldiers at the front.) 

Canteens at other important points 519,000.00 

(This provides an amount estimated as 
sufficient to equip and to operate for 
three months, eleven canteens for the 
French Army at various points behind 
the lines.) 

Work with permissionnaires at stations 43,250.00 

(This provides for all expenses con- 
nected with canteen and other relief 
work for French soldiers at railway 
stations in and about Paris.) 

Hospitals other than above mentioned 216,250.00 

(This provides the expenses of equip- 
ping, maintaining or contributing to sev- 
eral hospitals, such as the American Red 
Cross Hospital, now under the charge of 
Dr. Blake; Mrs. Trcnor L. Parks' Hos- 
pital at Annel near Compiegne; Dr. 
Ralph R. Fitch's Hospital at Evcreux, 
and new Red Cross Medical Hospital 
to be established for the care of nurses 
and ambulance workers and Red Cross 
personnel suffering from any non- 
surgical illnesses. This item also in- 
cludes the equipment and operation of 
a laundry to be operated for the benefit 
of hospitals in which the Red Cross is 
interesled.) 
American Red Cross Motors, Ambulance 

Service V 103,800.00 

(This covers equipment and operation 
of the American Red Cross sanitary 
sections, sometimes called the Norton- 
Harj€s Ambulance Service.) 

43 



Administration expenses of the Depart- 
ment at headquarters 37,973.50 

Prisoners, casualty and information Ser- 
vice 43,250.00 

Total $1,773,250.00 



II 

Depaetment of CrvtLiAN Relief in France 

The Budget prepared by Homer Folks, Dir- 
ector of the Red Cross Department of Civil 
Affairs in France, up to Nov. 1, 1917, is as 
follows : 

Provisonal reconstruction and rehabilita- 
tion of four villages in devastated areas $403,090.00 

Care and prevention of tuberculosis 523,152,00 

Clothing, bedding, garden implements, live 
stock for small farms, cooking utensils 
for practically destitute in devastated 
areas; this estimate based on unit of 
10,000 children, 5,000 women and 2,000 
men 432,500.00 

Artificial limbs for mutilated soldiers, 

relief of the blind, &c 25,085.00 

Assistance of orphans, destitute and neg- 
lected children, promotion and carrying 
on of agencies for prevention of infant 
mortality _ 173,000.00 

Aid of refugees throughout France 259,500.00 

A.c.sistance of repatriated as received 
through Switzerland or elsewhere, par- 
ticularly their temporary care, classifi- 
cation, diagnosis and distribution 129,750.00 

Clothing, employment, transportation and 
home relief of reformes, medical ex- 
amination, supervision and special relief 
for tuberculosis reformes 129,750.00 

44 



Supplementary work in re-education of 
mutilated at 59 centers throughout 
France 5 1 ,900.00 

Work of American organizations for civil 
relief _ 51,900.00 

General administration of the Depart- 
ment 10,726.00 

Total $2,190,353.00 

III 

DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION IN PARIS 

The Budget prepared by Carl Taylor, Director 
of Administration, up to Nov. 1, 1917, is as 
follows : 

Salaries in Directors' offices $ 1,040 

Bureau of Accounts 15,080 

Bureau of Purchases _ 5,190 

Bureau of Stores and Warehouses 34,690 

General expenses 54,185 

Insurance 2,475 

Secretary's office - 1,975 

Unclassified personnel _ 1,065 

Total _ $115,700 

IV 

Planning Department. 

The Budget prepared by Geo. B. Ford, Direc- 
tor, up to Nov. 1, 1917, is as follows : 

Salaries - - - $2,440 

Supplies 775 

Traveling expenses - 675 

Total $3,890 

45 



V 



Additional Appkopriations. 

In addition to the foregoing appropriations 
covering departmental work for the next few 
months, the following appropriations have also 
been made: 



Purchased in France : 

Hospital Supplies 500,000 

Foodstuffs 250,000 

Building Material and other Require- 
ments in Devastated Regions 150,000 

Transportation Supplies 100,000 

Material, Sheeting, Shoes, and for Ware- 
house service in France 235,000 

Foodstuffs 1,500,000 

Tobacco 8,700 

Ether 23,000 

Red Cross Transportation Service : 

For investment in France 562,900 

10 Motor trucks 28,925 

10 Motor trucks _ 47,833 

Operating Expenses, trucks, &c 172,700 

Other Appropriations: 

Material for use in buildings, Machin- 
ery, &c 93,000 

Relief of Sick and wounded French 

soldiers and families 1,000,000 

Medical Research 100,000 

Pediatric (Infant welfare) Unit 18,350 

American Ambulance Hospital Ex- 
penses: 400,000 

Nitrous Oxide Plant 35,000 

Blankets 820,000 

General and Contingent Relief Funds 520,000 

Id 



Relief of Nurses: 

Commutation to Nurses- abroad 15,000 

Grey Uniforms for Nurses 14,000 

Re-outfitting Nurses 15,000 

Total $10,692,601 



Before appropriations are recommended by 
the French Commission they are carefully pre- 
pared by the director of the particular depart- 
ment concerned. They are then considered by a 
Finance Committee, consisting of Major Mur- 
phy, Chairman, J. H. Perkins, H. H. Harjes, 
H. 0. Beatty, Carl Taylor, Homer Folks, William 
Endioott and Ralph Preston. Three of this com- 
mittee constitute a quorum, and every appropria- 
tion reported must receive the consent of all 
present. 

In addition, tlie French Commission has the 
general assistance of an advisory council con- 
sisting of Hon William G. Sharp, American Am- 
bassador to France, James Stillman, Edward Tuck. 
The two latter have been long resident in France 
and are familiar with French conditions. 

After appropriations are made, the money is 
expended with great care. A thorough account- 
ing (system has been installed in France, and the 
whole administration there is economically and 
carefully conducted. Every detail of the work 
done in France will sooner or later be accounted 
for to the American people. 

By reason of the magnitude of the work being 
done and the importance of quick action, most 
of the reports, directions and advices must be 
made by cable. To facilitate the work of the 

4T 



French conunission, the French government has 
arranged that all cables from Paris shall be given 
free transmission. Through the generosity of 
the Western Union TelegrajDh Company, a very 
large amoimt of free cable service is given from 
this side, thus greatly facilitating the close co- 
operation on an economical basis of the War 
Council and the Red Cross Commission in 
France. 

It ought to be added that most of those in 
charge, for the Red Cross, of the work in France 
are giving their own time and paying their own 
expenses. A special fund of $100,000. has also 
been privately contributed to meet expenses of 
members of the Fren-ch Commission unable to pay 
their own way. The rent of quarters in Paris is 
paid for the current year by Ralph Preston, as a 
contribution to the Red Cross. The actual charge 
upon Red Cross funds for administration is accord- 
ingly very small. 



18 



n. 



RUSSIA. 

As an initital step in carrying out its declared 
purpose "to do something immediately to heart- 
en afflicted Russia," the War Council dispatched 
to Russia the American Red Cross Commission. 
The commission carried with it three car 
loads of medical supplies and surgical instru- 
ments with which to meet most urgent needs. 
These are to be distributed to hospitals, institu- 
tions and Red Cross organizations in Russia. 

The commission is composed of twelve eminent 
experts in problems of medicine, public health, bus- 
iness and social service. The primary purpose of 
the commission will be not alone to render such im- 
mediate aid as it may, but to ascertain along the 
broadest possible lines in what manner the Ameri- 
can Red Cross can extend most effective relief to 
the wounded soldiers and the needy and suffering 
civilian population of Russia. 

The commission is headed by Dr. Frank Bil- 
ling, of Chicago, and Mr. William B. Thompson, 
of New York. 

As advisers in solving the problems of sanita- 
tion, public health and social service, the pom- 

49 



mission has the expert assistance of Raymond 
Robins, of Chicago; Dr. J. D. McCarthy, Pro- 
fessor of Public Health of the University of 
Pennsylvania; and Dr. George C. Whipple, 
Professor of Sanitary Engineering of Harvard 
University. 

To deal with general medical problems, the 
commission has the services of its chairman 
and Professor William S. Thayer, of Johns 
Hopkins University; Professor E. A. Winslow, 
of Yale University; and Dr. Wilbur E. Post, of 
Chicago. 

In its studies how best to assist Russia in 
providing adequate food supplies for its civilian 
population, as well as for convalescent soldiers 
and prisoners, the commission will have the 
assistance of Harold H. Smft, of the packing 
firm of Swift and Company, of Chicago; and 
Professor Henry C. Sherman, of Columbia 
University. 

In co-operation with the American Railroad 
Commission already in Russia, the Red Cross 
Commission will study the problems of transpor- 
tation, especially with reference to making sure 
that shipment of relief supplies may reach 
destination without delay. For this special work 
the Commission has as one of its members Henry 
J. Horn, formerly vice-president of the New 
Haven Railroad. 

In addition to the foregoing, the members of 
the Commission are J. W. Andrews, Thomas 
Thacher, and Dr. Orrin Weightman. 

Accompanying the Commission as inspectors 
and attaches, are the following: R. I. Barr, 
Norton C. Travis, William Cochran, William C. 

50 



Nicholson, Cornelius Kellcher, Malcolm Tirnic 
Allen War dwell, and Major Malcolm Grow, U. 
S. A. 

The traveling expenses and salaries of the Eus- 
sian Commission are being very generously 
borne by Mr. William B. Thompson, himself 
a member of the Commission. A large number 
of the members of this, as well as other com- 
missions, pay their own expenses, as well as 
give their time free. 

Just after the United States entered the war 
and before the Red Cross Commission started to 
Russia, the American Red Cross forwarded drugs 
valued at $6,500 to the Russian Red Cross. 

The Red Cross Commission to Russia was au- 
thorized to expend $116,280.87 for immediate 
needs. The Commission accordingly carried with 
it from the United States among other supplies, 
over 50 microscopes and 45,000 slides; 4600 clin- 
ical therometers; 288 operating knives, 23,000 
lengths of catgut, 1,700 ice caps,. 175,000 mor- 
phine sulphate tablets, and 200,000 antiseptic 
tablets. 

Russia has had great difficulty in securing 
enough hospital equipment and supplies to take 
proper care of her large armies. The shipment 
was planned to include a well-rounded stock of 
the most useful chemicals and apparatus. 

In response to reports from Dr. Billings, the 
War Council appropriated $200,000 for addition- 
al consignments of drugs for Russia. 

The most serious problem which will this winter 
confront Russia and especially Petrograd, is food, 
clothing and footwear. A large number of Rus- 



51 



sians have already starved as a result of tMs war, 
and if the Russian army is to stay in the field and 
Russia be able to avoid being compelled to make a 
separate peace, the Russian army and the Russian 
people in the north will have to be fed. 

The Red Cross awaits definite advice as to how 
it may best serve the cause of Russian people. 



52 



III. 



ROUMAXIA. 

On July 22iid, the Red Cross War Council an- 
nounced the dispach of a Red Cross Commission to 
Roumania. It was headed by Henry Watkins An- 
derson, of Richmond, Virginia. This commission 
planned to undertake at once, in addition to its 
investigation of sanitary and health conditions, ac- 
tual relief work among the Roumanian refugees. 
To do this work, a Red Cross medical unit of 
twelve doctors and twelve nurses accompanied the 
conunission. 

Quantities of medical supplies, serums, vaccines, 
and foodstuffs, urgently needed in Roumania, were 
sent with the commission by the War Council. A 
special emergency appropriation of |200,000 was 
voted for Roumanian relief. 

In addition to Mr. Anderson, the Chairman, the 
members of the Cormnission to Roumania are : 

Arthur Graham Glasgow, an engineer of 
Washington, D. C. Mr. Glasgow is one of the 
leaders of his profession, and has lived for 
more than twelve years in London where he 
maintained extensive offices. 



53 



Dr. Francis W. Peabody of Boston, who re- 
presented the Rockefeller Foundation in its med- 
ical investigation in China. 

Bernard Flexner of Chicago, a lawyer who has 
taken a prominent part in many sociological 
movements in the Middle West. 

Dr. H. Gideon Wells, of Chicago, Professor of 
Pathology in the University of Chicago. 

Dr. Roger Griswold Perkins, of Cleveland, 
Professor of Hygiene, Western Reserve Uni- 
versity. 

Dr. Robert C. Bryan, of Richmond, Virginia, 
who is one of the leading surgeons of the 
South. 

Doctors and nurses of the Medical Unit ac- 
companying the Commission were: 

Dr. W. D. Kirkpatrick, Bellingham, Washing- 
ton; Dr. Richard Penn Smith, Fort Loudon, Pa.; 
Dr. D. J. McCarthy, Davenport, Iowa; Dr. 
George Y. Massenberg, Macon, Ga. ; Dr. R. H. 
Rulison, Syracuse, N. Y. ; Dr. B. C. Hamilton, 
Syracuse, N. Y. ; Dr. Benjamine Earl Le Master, 
Macomb, 111.; Dr. Louis H. Limaure, Lynn, 
Mass.; Dr. E. F. Hird, Bound Brook, N. J.; 
Dr. W. T. Lowe, Pine Bluff, Ark.; Dr. Joseph 
P. H. Gruener, Chicago, 111.; Dr. Feo Dure 
Guca, Chicago, HL; Dr. Wm. J. Kucera, New 
Prague, Minn. 

Florence Patterson, Head Nurse, Washington, 
D. C; Rachel C. Torrance, New York City, 
N. Y.; Katherine Olmstead, Milwaukee, Wis.; 
Alma Forester, Chicago, HI.; Alice Gilbourne, 
Chicago, HI, ; and Anna T. Pederson, New York 
City. 

54 



IV. 



ITALY. 

Late in July, the War Council dispatched a 
special Red Cross Commission to Italy. The 
purpose of the commission is to advise how 
American Red Cross activity can best be exerted 
to meet needs of the suffering soldiers and the 
civilian population of that country. 

This was the fourth Red Cross commission to 
go to Europe. It was headed by George F. 
Baker, Jr., Vice-President of the First Na- 
tional Bank of New York City. With Mr. Baker 
went John R. Morron, President, Atlas Portland 
Cement Company; Dr. Thomas W. Huntington, 
President of the American Surgical Association; 
Dr. Victor G. Heiser, of the United States 
Public Health Service; and Nicholas F. Brady, 
Central Trust Company, New York. 

Accompanying the commission also, was 
Chandler R. Post, Professor of Greek and Fine 
Arts at Harvard University, and one of the 
leading authorities in this country on Italy. 

Through the American Academy in Rome, it 
was arranged that the commission to Italy 
should have detailed to assist it, Gorham Phil- 

55 



lips Stevens, Director of the School of Fine 
Arts, and Charles Upson Clark, of Yale Univers- 
ity, Director of the School of Classical Studies, 
both of whom are now resident in Eome. 

To enable this commission to meet the more 
urgent needs which might be found to exist, 
an emergency appropriation of $200,000 was 
made by the Red Cross War Council. Other 
work in Italy will depend upon the report of this 
commision as to how such efforts can best 
be made. The Commission arrived in Rome 
on Aug. 31. 



M 



V. 



SERBIA. 

Late in August, the War Council of the 
American Red Cross was able to announce the 
sending of a commission to Serbia to begin 
inunediate relief work in that stricken country 
and to help its scattered population in the 
struggle against privation and disease. 

The Red Cross had done much relief work in 
Serbia before the appointment of the War 
Council. Early last spring in response to a re- 
quest from the Serbian Government, Dr. Edward 
W. Ryan, formerly head of the American hos- 
pital in Belgrade went to Saloniki to organize 
the sanitary and relief work of Serbia. His 
work was to organize a war relief clearing house 
at Saloniki and to coordinate and develop relief 
work in and about Saloniki now carried on 
through American effort. The work has 
necessarily been limited to the territory behind 
the Allied lines north of Saloniki. 

In the districts under Dr. Ryan's supervision, 
though small as compared with the whole of 
Serbia, the demands upon American relief re- 
sources have been large. Around Saloniki there 

67 



have been thousand of refugees, reduced by the 
privations of more than two years of war to 
conditions even worse than those in Belgium and 
Roumania. Many of them have been dependent 
upon relief given by America. Next to Belgium 
and France, the chief center of American relief 
work abroad has been Serbia. The American 
Red Cross maintained a base hospital in Bel- 
grade before the Teuton-Bulgar invasion, and 
with the aid of the Rockefeller Foundation un- 
dertook the battle against typhus. 

Cordenio Arnold Severance, of St. Paul, Min- 
nesota, headed the special Red Cross Commis- 
sion to Serbia. 

Deputy Commissioners were: 

Dr. Severance Burrage, Sanitarian, formerly 
of the Massachusetts Institute of Techno- 
logy. 

Dr. Frederick T. Lloyd, physician of Boston. 

Dr. Eugene A. Crockett, Surgeon, of Boston. 

Father Francis Jager, University of Min- 
nesota, Minneapolis. 

John W. Frothingham. 

W. A. W. Stewart, New York City, N. Y. 

L. D. Wishard, Pasadena, California. 

Edwin D. Haskell, Secretary; Minneapolis, 
Minn. 

Two hundred thousand dollars was appropriat- 
ed by the War Council to buy medical and other 
supplies for use in the discretion of the com- 
mission. 

This, the fifth of the Red Cross commissions, 
went to study a problem acknowledged as one 

68 



of the most formidable in Europe. There is 
hardly a family in Serbia that has not been 
uprooted and torn from its home, and few that 
have not lost some member on the battlefield. 
What have been the nation's losses during the 
past few years of blood-shed cannot be estimated. 
From an army of nearly half a million at the 
beginning of the war, over a hundred and fifty 
thousand men are estimated to have been taken 
prisoners by the Central Powers and are suffer- 
ing from malnutrition in prison camps. Many 
thousands were lost in the retreat through 
Albania. Of the army of one hundred thousand 
now on the Saloniki front, about sixty thousand 
are actual fighting men. 

The civilian population has suffered as greatly 
as the army. It has been harried over the face 
of Europe. One hundred and fifty thousand 
fatherless Serbian families, it is estimated, are 
facing destitution in various countries. Refugees 
in Russia, Roumania, Greece, Italy, France and 
Switzerland number over thirty thousand. 

The pressing needs of Serbia have been laid 
before the War Council by Dr. Edward Ryan, 
Red Cross representative at Saloniki and by 
Miss Emily Simmonds, graduate of Roosevelt 
Hospital, New York, who enlisted in the Serbian 
Red Cross in 1914 and has since then assisted 
in the relief of thousands of refugees. 

Miss Simmonds urged the dispatch of food, 
clothing, bandages, blankets, seeds, agricultural 
tools, as well as doctors and nurses. In her in- 
formal report to the Red Cross, she said: 

''There were only 400 doctors in all Serbia at 
the beginning of the war, and the death rate has 

59 



been high. Sixty died of typhus alone in January 
and February of 1915. There are 116 doctor; 
now in the army, but only one dentist. Women 
doctors are especially needed for maternity work 
in the villages. One doctor in a small car could 
furnish medical supervision for several villages. 
A system of soup kitchens in the villages is an 
absolute necessity if famine is not to make good 
its threats this winter. ' * 

The War Council will await the first hand in- 
quiries of the Red Cross Commission as to what 
can be done in Serbia. 



eo 



VI. 



RELIEF IN ARMENIA. 

In addition to the foregoing activities, the 
War Council has appropriated $600,000., to be 
expended for relief work in the Near East, 
through the American Committee for Armenian 
and Syrian ReHef. The Red Cross will ap- 
propriate a like amount for each of the four 
remaining months of this year if the work of 
the Committee is not so hampered by the Turk- 
ish Government to make further grants inadvis- 
able. 

The American Committee is the only organiza- 
tions outside of the Red Crescent, (controlled 
by the Turkish Government), which is allowed 
to administer relief in certain portions of the 
Turkish Empire. The American Committee's 
field of operations includes not only Asia Minor 
and those portions of Armenia and Syria that 
are in the Ottoman Empire, but it also includes 
a large section of Armenia now dominated by 
the Russian army, as well as the Russian Cau- 
casus, Persia, Mesopotamia and portions of 
Egypt, into which refugees, Armenian, Syrian 
and Greek have fled in large numbers. 

01 



The making of appropriations for relief in 
the Near-East is in accord with the policy of 
the Red Cross to co-operate with relief agencies 
in the theatre of war to the end that there shall 
be the utmost aid accorded, while overlapping of 
effort is as far as possible avoided. The ap- 
propriation is made upon application of James 
L. Barton, Chairman, and C. V. Vickrey, Secre- 
tary, respectively, of the American Committee 
for Armenian and Syrian Relief, and, after in- 
vestigation and approval by the Red Cross Com- 
mittee on Co-operation. 

Thousands of children in need. 

There are 2,000,000 people in Western Asia 
whose death can be prevented only by direct 
and continued help from this American Com- 
mittee. These people have been exiled from 
their homes and are in regions where self sup- 
port is practically impossible. From one town 
alone there is a call to provide for 10,000 fa- 
therless children. The estimated number of or- 
phans in another district is given by the Amer- 
ican Consul as 40,000. In the entire field the 
number of orphaned children is estimated to 
run into the hundred of thousands. 

In the Caucasus, the American Committee 
has found it imperative to provide employment 
for women, many of whom have lost their hus- 
bands, their children and all their material pos- 
sessions. These women take wool in the rough 
and make it into garments for other destitute 
people. 

62 



While it is true that the larger part of the 
American Committee's relief has been given to 
Christians, this has not been because they were 
Christians, but rather because they were re- 
siding under Moslem rule and were first to 
suffer. 

Of the Armenians alone, nearly a million were 
massacred or driven to death in 1915, and the 
remainder of the race within Turkish dominions 
were deported from their homes into the desert 
regions where self support was impossible. 
Since then approximately 500,000 Greeks, who 
formerly resided in prosperous villages south 
of the Black Sea, have been deported in similar 
manner and are now destitute and helpless. 



fW 



VII. 



CAR£ FOR AMERICAN PRISONERS 
IN GERMANY. 

The American Red Cross has perfected plans 
to care for Americans who may be captured and 
held in German prison camps. A Prisoners' Re- 
lief Committee has been organized at Berne, 
Switzerland, under the supervision of Ellis L. 
Dresel, of the American Legation. Mr. Dresel 
served from the outbreak of the war in 1914 up 
to our breaking off diplomatic relations as an at- 
tache of the American Embassy at Berlin, where 
his duties included relief work for men of the 
entente nationalities in German prison camps. 

Today only about 100 American prisoners are 
held in Germany. Most of these are civilians 
taken off American merchantmen that have been 
sunk by Teuton submarines. More recent ar- 
rivals in the prison camps had served as gun 
crews, since the arming of our merchant ships. 

Speedy provision for their relief and for those 
who may be taken prisoner is necessitated by the 
German policy of giving prisoners war food to- 
tally inadequate to keep men in good health. The 
extremely high death rate among Russian, Serb- 
ian and Roumanian prisoners in Germany and 

64 



Austria (30 per cent, in the case of the Rou- 
manians) has been largely due to the inability 
of Russia and the Balkan states to organize the 
rationing of prisoners of their nationalities from 
their home countries. 

A recent cable dispatch from Paris tells of a 
French soldier just back from a German prison 
camp and in the last stage of tuberculosis. This 
soldier was one of a battalion of a thousand 
young and healthy men captured in a body, early 
in the war. More than fifty per cent of the num- 
ber are now dead, or have been returned to 
France, via Switzerland, as incurables. 

Malnutrition, no less than unsanitary condi- 
tions, produces these results. British, Canadian 
and Australian prisoners of war in Germany now 
depend exclusively upon food shipped to them 
from London, and generally give the prison camp 
ration to prisoners of other countries, who are, 
as a rule, less well provided. Bread is already 
being dispatched from Berne to the Americans 
in Germany, and arrangements have also been 
made for transmitting letters and money from 
their families and friends in this country. 

Thus far only bread has been supplied by the 
Berne Committee of the American Red Cross. 
Assorted food parcels and clothing will also be 
forwarded soon. In the meantime the Central 
Prisoners of War Committee of London is act- 
ing on behalf of American prisoners in Ger- 
many, sending them such foods as the Committee 
regularly despatches to British and colonial 
prisoners. 

By arrangement with Germany, these food par- 
cels are sent to the prisoner three times a fort- 



65 



night. The parcels supplement the bread which 
is also regularly supplied, and each of them con- 
tains ten pounds of meat, butter, sugar, jam, cof- 
fee or tea, salt, rice, and dried fruit. The Ameri- 
can Eed Cross is forwarding to Berne stocks of 
the same foodstuffs, as well as cheese, evaporated 
milk, codfish, and mixed biscuit. Tinned goods 
cannot be sent to prisoners, for Germany has 
made over the tin containers as hand grenades. 

Ninety-five per cent of the British packages 
sent into Germany, with postal card receipts ^'^ 
be mailed back by the prisoner, have been duly 
receipted for. The American Red Cross, also, will 
enclose postal cards, as a means of making sure 
that American prisoners do actually receive the 
food parcels. 



1 



66 



VIII. 



RECAPITULATION OF APPRO- 
PRIATIONS. 

A complete re-capitulation follows of the ap- 
propriations made by the American Red Cross 
for work in Europe outside of France: 

Russia 

Drugs $ 6,500 

Medical Supplies 316,280.87 

Total _ 322,780.87 

Rotifytdfitci 

Relief Fund and Medical Supplies $200,000 

Expenses of Commission to Rou- 

mania 47,000 

Total 247,000 



Italy 



Relief Fund and Medical Supplies 200,000 

Expenses of Commission to Italy 10,000 

Total - 2 10,000 



Serbia 



Emergency Relief Fund 200,000 

Condensed Milk for Serbian Military 

Hospital 6,000 

Expenses of Commission to Serbia ... 16,500 

Total - 222,500 

67 



England 

Surgical Supplies sent to London 

Chapter American Red Cross 3,800 

Expenses Commission to Great Bri- 
tain „_ _. 5,000 

Total - 8,800 

Other Appropriations : 

Armenian Relief _ 600,000 

Relief of Americans in Germany 26,000 

International Red Cross Geneva 10,000 

Total 636.000 

It will thus appear that the War Council has 
made appropriations for work in Europe as fol- 
lows: 

In France $10,692,601. 

Outside of Trance 1,647,080.87 



Grand total $12,339,681.87 

Some of these appropriations are to cover a 
full year, but the greater part will have been 
expended by November of the current year. 

Eespectfully submitted, 

RED CROSS WAR COimOIL, 

Henry P. Davison_, 

Chairman. 
Chas. D. Norton, 
John D. Ryan, 
Grayson M.-P. Murphy, 
Cornelius N. Bliss, Jr. 
Ex officio : 

William H. Tait, 
Eliot Wadsworth. 



66 



iSS,£,,2^''«s 



020 9i5'-«,'« 



